Ruins with a Fountain

Platzer’s easel paintings of the subjects of architectural capriccios distinctly reflect the influences of the period stage design and decoration, which Platzer went in for. The fantastic ancient ruins, enriched by a fountain featuring Poseidon and Amphitrite, are supplemented by a vivid mythological staffage enlivening the scene and in its miniature scale enhancing the impression of monumentality of the noble arcades, already showing the ravages of time. The airy mist unifies the space formed by a coulisse-like order of the spatial planes. Platzer consciously followed here the work of Norbert Grund, Landscape with the Ruins of a Round Temple (around 1760, exhibited in the same room), which had been joined by two more paintings of similar subjects, created by different artists, and the whole ensemble thus represented an interesting example of artistic emulation.